The Poverty and Human Rights Centre submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on the occasion of its review of Canada’s 5th report on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (October 2005)
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The Poverty and Human Rights Centre
1. The Poverty and Human Rights Centre has a mandate of promoting compliance with the human rights commitments that Canada has made and of advancing interpretations of rights to take into account social and economic inequality and disadvantage. The Centre works through research, analysis, writing, and public education, and collaborates with community groups, scholars, lawyers and students.
Introduction
2. During the period under review, the Government of British Columbia made drastic cuts to social programmes and to social and labour protections. This has had the harshest effects on those groups in the BC. population that are already the most disadvantaged: women, single mothers, Aboriginal peoples, elderly women and men, people with disabilities, people of colour, recent immigrants and refugee claimants. The Government of British Columbia’s multi-pronged strategy to diminish BC.’s social safety net brings the province into contravention of Articles 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 14, 17, 22, 23 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as the following documentation shows.
3. The erosion of services and protections has weakened the social foundations that permit residents of this province to enjoy their civil and political rights — to enjoy liberty and security of the person, to participate fully in public affairs, to be equal in their access to justice and the courts, and to be equal persons, treated with equal respect and worth in society. The Poverty and Human Rights Centre requests that the Human Rights Committee pay urgent attention to the diminishment of the enjoyment of basic human rights in the Province of British Columbia.
4. This alternative report has a particular emphasis on the civil and political rights of women in British Columbia, because women have been particularly hard hit by the recent erosion of social services and protections. The last five years in particular have been a time of going backwards, and women, particularly single mothers, Aboriginal women, disabled women, elderly women, women of colour and immigrant women, have been further marginalized and subordinated.
5. In its 2003 Concluding Comments, after reviewing Canada’s Fifth Report, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women stated:
The Committee is concerned about a number of recent changes in British Columbia which have a disproportionately negative impact on women, in particular aboriginal women. Among these changes are: a cut in funds for legal aid and welfare assistance, including changes in eligibility rules; the incorporation of the Ministry of Women’s Equality under the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services; the abolition of the independent Human Rights Commission; the closing of a number of courthouses; and the proposed changes regarding the prosecution of domestic violence as well as a cut in support programmes for victims of domestic violence.
The Committee, through the State party, urges the government of British Columbia to analyse its recent legal and other measures as to their negative impact on women and to amend the measures, where necessary. (emphasis added)
6. The Government of British Columbia was subsequently urged by women residents of the province to undertake the recommended review and to make the necessary changes. The Government, through the Attorney General, refused to do so.
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Twenty-eight session, 13-31 January 2003, Consideration of Reports submitted by States Parties under Article 18 of the Convention, Concluding Observations of the Committee: Canada, (A/58/38), paras. 359-360.
Letter from the Hon. Geoff Plant, Attorney General of British Columbia, to the BC. CEDAW Group (17 November 2003).